Report of the Executive Committee on the constitution and working of the General Medical Council : memorandum by Dr. Pitman and Sir James Paget : memorandum by Dr. Quain : and appendix containing documents in regard to the Council.
- General Medical Council. Executive Committee.
- Date:
- 1879
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Executive Committee on the constitution and working of the General Medical Council : memorandum by Dr. Pitman and Sir James Paget : memorandum by Dr. Quain : and appendix containing documents in regard to the Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
28/88 page 26
![the proposal to reduce the number of representative members by requiring several elective bodies to combine in making a single appointment. The bodies could not be expected to agree in an appointment. Their views and interests are diverse, and in many cases rival, or even conflicting. Some of them would, on such a plan, be practically unrepresented, or might even consider themselves misrepresented. The plan could not, I think, work satisfactorily, if applied to England or Ireland. I cannot say whether it may admit of any extension in Scotland. To the proposal to take away from the Council the Crown nominees, I might answer shortly by pointing to the services of Parkes, Sharpey, and others. This would be my answer if your question had referred only to the working of the Council under the Medical Act of 1858. But your question points to duties which the Council may have to discharge under altered circum- fcitances. The Government Medical Bill of last Session, if it become law, will confer additional powers on the Privy Council, and therefore suggests a consideration whether, under these circum- stances, it may be either necessary or advisable that the Govern- ment should be represented in the Medical Council so largely as it is at present. Under the Medical Act of 1858, the functions of the Privy Council were limited to sitting in judgment on any of the medical authorities that might be charged with neglect of duty by the Medical Council. But the 14th and 15th clauses of the Medical Bill of 1878, if enacted, will invest the Privy Council with additional powers, and these additional powers go to determining the conditions of admission of candidates to examination, i.e. to controlling details of medical education. The Privy Council will have the power of modifjdng these Examination Rules, even though they have received the approval of the Medical Council and the Medical Authorities. ]Now the Privy Council is not a medical body. It cannot boast of a single medical member. I have every reason for speaking with respect of what I have seen of Lords President. But nobody can expect them to be conversant with the details of medical education. If they require information or an opinion on such matters, they must seek it from someone else. And so it might happen](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b23982792_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
